It was a week ago when I had the pleasure to attend a music event called “Soundtrack of your life” with Professor Abby Anderton in NVC room 4-190. It was basically about music’s connection to your life and how you can relate to songs or music. I chose this event because I have great affection for music and also I could relate to the stuff we discussed during the session as I am taking a music course too this semester. Prof. Anderton began by talking about ‘Leitmotif’ which means a musical theme that can replace the idea of a person, place, or thing. I learned a new term in music- ‘Timbre’ which is the tone quality of a sound. Also, we talked about the difference between major and minor notes characterizing major as a happy and upbeat note, whereas, minor as a sad, low-beat note. Furthermore, while working on our Leitmotif’s on a piano, we learned how to add/remove a ‘flat’ (lower the note by 1/2) or ‘sharp’ (raise the note by 1/2). The event was also useful to me in a way that it cleared some of my own doubts regarding music such as the difference between a melody and a harmony which are the main tune and two or more tones at a time respectively. The hour long session enhanced my thinking about music and made me aware of several musical factors such as the ones I have stated above. Moreover, we played many different types of instruments throughout the session such as strings, percussion etc. Moving towards the end of our session, we listened to some songs by Bessie Blues who was the most popular female American artist in 20’s and 30’s and how her era had a huge influence on blues singers and music overall. I listen to music most of the time during my day, everyday, which I think is the reason why I was inclined to attend this event. Overall, this event, more or less, added a lot to my knowledge about music and expanded the horizons of my mind regarding the same. I am glad that I had the chance to participate in it and that too for extra credit!
